'Gotham' takes unconventional approach to telling Batman story

Traditionally, comic-book prequels focus on the hero when he or she was a kid. Think "Superboy" and "Little Archie" comic books, or "Smallville" on TV.

The highly anticipated new Fox show "Gotham" takes a different approach by focusing on Commissioner Gordon when he was just an ambitious rookie cop with a sexy sleepover girlfriend and a knack for breaking the rules, especially when the rules are the result of corruption.

Created by Bruno Heller ("The Mentalist") and premiering Monday as a lead-in to "Sleepy Hollow," "Gotham" has a lot going for it, at least judging by the one episode Fox sent to critics. First, of course, there's enduring fascination with Batman, who, for many kids and the adults they became, was far more interesting than Superman because he was not from another planet, but very human, did not have special powers, and - I'm sorry, but it has to be said - he just dressed better. Who didn't opt for a cool black cape and pointy-eared headgear instead of a blue unitard with tighty ... reddies? ... at Halloween?

On top of that, while Superman posed as Clark Kent, a nerdy newspaper reporter, Bruce Wayne was a suave, rich dude with a butler, a mansion and a super-cool car. True, the whole Robin thing seemed weird once you were older, but for a while, at least, it gave everykid USA a chance to think that maybe one day he could be a Boy Wonder sidekick, too.

Tragic beginning

"Gotham" begins with young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz, "Touch") walking with his parents in a dark alley after leaving a show. Out of nowhere, a masked man approaches, steals the elder Waynes' valuables and shoots them. For a split second, he trains his gun on Bruce, but then runs from the alley.

Gordon (Ben McKenzie, "Southland") is paired with veteran cop Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue, "Sons of Anarchy"), who's none too happy about having the case in the first place and being saddled with a Boy Scout rookie like Gordon.

At the scene of the murder, Gordon tries to comfort young Bruce and to assure him that, no matter what, the cops will find out who killed his parents.

"I promise you, however dark and scary the world might seem right now, there will be light. There will be light, Bruce," Gordon says.

If almost any other actor delivered that line, you'd half expect to see a comic-book dialogue bubble pop up over his head.

But either the most foolhardy or the smartest move Heller and his producers have made here is casting McKenzie as their hero. Of course, he's a terrific actor - his character arc in "Southland," from being dismissively saddled with the nickname "Hollywood" by his LAPD colleagues to growing into a seasoned, tough journeyman cop, worked because McKenzie is never anything less than realistically credible.

So here we have one of TV's more consistently believable actors working in the context of a comic book, complete with Batman's familiar villains in larval stage. The art direction also adds to the show's fantasy sensibilities, making the police department look as though it was lifted from the 1940s, and the dark, perpetually wet streets of Gotham resemble a painting more than an actual city.

Starting young

Much of the fun of watching the pilot episode is identifying the future villains and other characters in their proto state. Catwoman Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) leaps from walls to fire escapes and witnesses the shooting of the Waynes. Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor), is a nervous toadie for nightclub owner and mob moll Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith). For a while, he walks like anyone else, but later in the episode, we see how he obtained his singular Penguin gait.

Young Ivy Pepper (Claire Foley) lives with her parents, tending to plants in their run-down flat, until her father is charged with the Waynes' murder. That event poisons Ivy, if you get my drift.

Younger versions of the Riddler (Cory Michael Smith), Bruce Wayne's trusted Alfred (Sean Pertwee) and Gordon's future wife (Erin Richards), who may have some secrets her boyfriend doesn't know about, also add to our tentative enjoyment of the pilot.

There's no question Pinkett Smith's Fish Mooney character is deliciously evil, but she does throw the pilot off balance a bit. She's too dominant in the show right now. That may, and definitely should, change once the actual Batman villains grow into their personalities, but then again, she's Jada Pinkett Smith.

While other comic-book shows try to replicate the fantasy of the source material at every level, "Gotham" tries to walk a thin line between realism and fantasy. It seems to work - for now, at least. But you have to wonder about the challenges the series will face once those larvae become full-fledged, whackadoodle villains. Trying to have it both ways is courageous, but courage doesn't guarantee success.